“Half of us here knew it was a trap before it happened.”
My sister and BIL had planned to attend but changed their minds at the last minute. They didn’t think “trap”, but just decided not to go. Whew!!
I helped lead a group of Freepers to Tallahassee in 2000, to protest outside the Supreme Court there for several days in a row. We printed signs based on images created by Freeper Registered that ended up in the Florida Museum of History. So I have some good first hand experience in rallying over contested elections.
But I knew this was a very bad idea from the start. There was no chance of the vote outcome being changed, for starters. Pence had already made it clear he wasn't going to act in an unprecedented, unconstitutional manner, which meant the votes were going to elect Biden. So it was doomed to only be an expression of anger.
There was also the near certainty that some undercover agents would be there to stir things up. We had already seen the pictures of them there in the beta test rally held two weeks before.
A lot of Trump supporters weren't following those details closely enough though, and trusted Trump and his invitation to be safe. An invitation into disaster, that we are still paying for to this day.